Chapter 106 Sanctum With Snakes

The truth was a difficult thing to determine for some people–especially when there were individuals who blended lies with truth and those who refused to say anything at all. Lukas and the rest were driving away from Cervus' group and were using the only singular path cut out from the forest.

Which meant that people did travel here, but as the arrows flew and attacked them… Theodore suddenly made a swerve to lose track of them.

"Woah, woah, we're going to crash–" Lukas raised his voice in alarm but the van did not hit any trees. Instead, they somehow rode into some brushes but the grounds were actually stable enough for the van.

"This… this isn't the proper path." Chaerin pointed out.

"It isn't, but we need to avoid their eyes for awhile." Theodore responded easily.

As much as Lukas and the others wanted to argue with the assassin, compared to him–they really knew next to nothing about the terrain. It also didn't make sense for Theodore to stall them.

It was Lily, his dear cousin who's life was at stake and so he wouldn't pull anything weird.

And so the van drove through the Veil Forest for what seemed to be a long time until it finally stopped. The mist cleared up lightly to reveal a sight that Lukas and Stacy didn't expect, but something Chaerin had been hoping for.

Several grassy huts were available on the ground and its people consisted of mostly elderly individuals, with graying hair and different appearances from large antlers, tusks and even sagging ears.

Their place was adorned with beautiful lanterns that gave their place a nice welcoming glow within a couple of meters, but also was enough to spook others from a distance.

The aging population of the Veil Forest turned out to be still alive and separated from the rest. Theodore sighed inwardly and clutched the driver's wheel–he hadn't made any plans to go here, really.

It shouldn't have mattered.

"It's that snake–!" Lukas' eyes widened and quickly turned on Theodore. He lifted the dagger and pressed it against the Vampire's nape. "Did you get hypnotized or something? Why did you lead us here–"

"Watch more, act less hastily." Theodore frowned, but also watched the giant white albino snake suddenly turn back into his human form. Nievu wobbled for a moment, until he was caught by one of the elders and patted him in the back.

"I don't understand." Stacy started.

"Yeah, I really don't understand it either." Alexei scratched his head. "Did we piss off the earlier group for not trusting their words earlier? This seems like a bit of a problem, don't you think?"

Chaerin pursed her lips and watched the white-haired young man approach their van. She looked at Theodore who was sitting calmly and then back at Lukas, before she grabbed her wrist and lowered his hand.

"Lukas, I think you can see that the situation is…"

"I thought you didn't care." Lukas made the dagger disappear and glanced at the reflection of Theodore in the rearview. "You said that Ursa wasn't willing to talk, but the truth is that–"

Nievu knocked on the front window, and Theodore slowly rolled down the window.

"... you came here to see." Nievu said. His pale white hair and red eyes and the way he enunciated certain letters somehow made him more of a Vampire than any of them in the van.

"You know, I was kinda expecting him to say something like 'you don't know the full story' or something that coordinates with your statement." Lukas glanced at Theodore who simply sighed.

Nievu tilted his head at him, staring at him unblinkingly.

Lukas didn't exactly ease up fully, but he looked at the elderly folks and saw how they didn't fear the snake guy. That had to amount to something, didn't it?

"Alright, hit me with the truth train." Lukas raised his hands up. He was so tempted to blame Drusilla for making them extend this long in the Veil Forest, but here they were and there was no turning back.

Or it didn't make sense to turn back when the eyes of everyone was on them.

Lukas noticed the elderly and while it was a relief to see them all together and alive–somehow the numbers were far more dwindled than he expected. Not to mention that they mostly consisted of women too.

And for the few men who were there, they harbored scars and injuries that were far more simple than simply accidents.

"Cervus… is the one at fault for this." Nievu slowly said, as if noticing Lukas' own discerning gaze. "Many more lives than necessary were lost, thanks to him."

"And so there's still a number of lives that's okay to be lost? It just exceeded your expectations?" Lukas smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

Sometimes it was easy to forget that he was dealing with people whose moral compasses were more varied than his.

It was easy to pretend that it didn't exist when he was back at Lux–but that was because he mostly kept working, spending time with his girlfriends and not thinking of what the Vampires did to obtain blood sources.

And yet now he was front and center to it all again.

"Death and life is an inescapable thing and each one has a role to work here and survive in our home." Nievu frowned at him. "Some are chosen to die for the greater good, but… that did not sit well for Cervus."

"And so, that's the reason why there's different groups now." Lukas' gaze flickered to the village. Compared to the one back in Cervus' group, it was hard to imagine how they survived–but it was mostly due to Nievu and others, wasn't it?

Seeing that Lukas seemed far from convinced, Nievu continued. "He massacred the others because they did not choose to side with him, and the survivors are here. He is foolish. He should have accepted their fate."

"Is that so?"

Greater good. Who had the right to determine that? Lukas fought back the urge to chuckle. What mostly mattered was what side he was going to choose, wasn't it?